This is a sponsored post by Elisa on behalf of cashnetusa.com.
Any of us whose grandparents went through the Great Depression of the 1930s and are still alive today may have heard the stories. When someone lost a job, they might have up and moved in a matter of months. Or they took in laundry, or the 14-year-old sibling went to work somewhere. Farm children went door-to-door in nearby towns to sell produce from wagons. It was a time of serious, desperate-sounding solutions.
But for its time, some of those measures weren’t really as drastic as they may sound today.
In fact, your grandparents and great grandparents were being strategic. They looked at whatever resources they had, the outflow as well, and made rational, conscious decisions about how they would get through hard times. We have different but no less strategic decisions to make about our own finances in this economic era. To develop your own strategy, consider using this checklist:
- Assess the timing of bills and consider your options – If someone in the house is unemployed or underemployed, paying bills on schedule is like something out of “I Love Lucy.” But strategizing over what to pay when is the fundamental driver of cash flow in restricted circumstances.
- Borrow when the cost is less than not borrowing – If you let a bill go late, there obviously will be penalties. If several bills lag, the penalties multiply. Sometimes it makes sense to borrow just enough to pay bills if the cost of the loan is less than those penalties. This is one reason why many are finding payday loans, which change the cash flow-in dates, make sense (a payday loan is borrowing against your next paycheck, days or weeks before it is due).
- Borrow only when you can pay it back quickly – This needs explaining?
Most important, if there are dynamics in your life such as someone who lost a job or a child who will begin school soon (tuition, uniforms, etc.), you have to reconcile yourself with the in/out cash component of those changes. Face the change, strategize and you likely will find a solution.